The women Spartan’s basketball team enter the season with a great amount of outside pressure on them to succeed this year. With their No. 1 Sunshine State Conference ranking as well as a No. 22 national ranking, they have certainly gained the nation’s attention.
“We certainly thought we had a pleasant surprise season, we like to say. We graduated five starters from the previous year so many people deemed it as a rebuilding year,” Tom Jessee, Head Coach said.
However, while they went into the season as underdogs, they came out as favorites- hence the early season rankings.
“As it turned out, we had a record setting year,” Jessee said. “[We] broke the record again for school wins, shared a regular season championship, won the sunshine conference tournament for three of the last four years, went back to NCAA Regional for four years in a row, so the kids have really bought into it being a tradition now.”
After winning for only the second time in school history at regional, the Spartans were defeated by Ouachita Baptist in the semifinals.
Moving forward to this season, UT would obviously like to continue their winning ways. They will be in a prime position to do so with the amount of players they have returning. Coach Jessee mentioned that he felt the junior and senior class is solid this season, as displayed by his starting lineup.
The starters for the lady Spartans will be represented by two juniors and three seniors
While those five will be on the court at tip off, Jessee put a lot of emphasize on his bench to help carry the team.
“Those [starters] we feel pretty solid about. The question lies on the bench,” Jessee said. “Where is the Hailee Sullivan that came off the bench a year ago that brings a lot of offensive firepower? Sarah Wickham is a kid we’ll look to early. Catriana Messina is a kid that’s had a great summer and will bid for a lot of playing time at the one and can start at the point for us.”
Jessee also spoke about both areas of strength and weakness for the Spartans this year. “We’re a little smaller this year than we’d like to be, in the post that is. Maybe not as deep as we’d like to be either,” Jessee said. On the other hand, a strength of the team is “our experience, our returning players coming back. You cant teach experience,” Jessee said.
As mentioned earlier, the Spartans are ranked among the top 25 teams in the nation. It will be important, as Jessee confirmed, not to focus much on their ranking, but rather on just playing.
“It’s an honor to be there, but it is what it is- now you gotta go play. It’s not the [ranking] at the beginning of the year you want anyway. That means you really are riding on last year’s success. It’s the one at the end of the year that you want to be on,” Jessee said.
With expectations so high for this year, a national championship is in UT’s sights, even if far away. Coach Jessee believes that while it is a goal of the team’s to bring another national championship to Tampa, it is going to be difficult.
“Can we achieve that goal from here? I’m not sure we’ve got enough funding yet to make that happen but we’re working hard at raising money and trying to build” said Jessee. “Your depth of your bench is the key in basketball. When we can only go seven people deep and your competition is running ten full scholarship kids out there, it can make it tough.”
The SSC is also going to be a tough conference to play in, with several teams having improved over the years and now ready to compete.
“This will be the best the league’s ever been, Jessee said.
As for potential unexpected players to rise to the occasion this season and help the team, Jessee looks to his sophomore forward to fill that role.
“Brittany Brown is a kid that we’re going to look at, a post player that needs to step up. She would be a kid that would be a surprise to most people but I think she’s ready to do it,” Jessee said.
The UT women’s basketball team starts the season on the road on Nov. 17th, but will return home on Wed, Nov. 25th for their home opener versus Valdosta State.